Bathing Suit?

“A baby girl arrives, and just like that, everything changes. The world gets bigger, hearts grow fuller and life means more because she’s in it”.~Unknown

With summer upon us I thought it would be a great opportunity to sew a summer outfit! Mia looked through my patterns and picked out this bathing suit from 1962. After much debate and many choices she decided on this pin striped fabric that features little embroidered crabs.

This pattern was already starting out fun! Look at the illustrations from the pattern envelope front. How could you not feel cool in this bathing suit?

I got to work pinning the pattern to the fabric.

I was making sure my pattern direction arrows were lining up with the stripes in the fabric.

It was a simple sew together, joining the front pieces and the back pieces. Once they were sewn I attached the front of the bathing suit to the back.

It called for a zipper up the back and Mia chose this “Atom Red” zipper that I had in my stash. Some zippers in my stash are older and made of metal. I told her be careful not to choose a metal one for this sew, I wouldn’t want it to rust!

Pinning the zipper in place.

The pattern called for a liner which makes sense! If you were to get wet in one layer of fabric it would probably be see through! I had this beige broadcloth which is light weight. I thought it would work great as a neutral liner. If wet, it would dry quicker than cotton too!

Anything you do to the outside of a lined garment, you usually have to do to the liner as well. It had bust darts so I pinned them and sewed them.

Once the two front pieces and the two back pieces were sewn together I lined the pieces up at the sides to sew them.

I then had to attach the liner to the bathing suit. Once it is sewn together you flip the liner to the inside and tack it all down. As you can see on the pattern instructions, the legs of the liner have elastic in them. This gives the liner a more “bloomer” feeling. The legs of the bathing suit are hemmed.

Once the liner was flipped I had stitched the liner at the zipper opening.

Sewing the shoulders together. First you sew the outside, then fold in and stitch down the liner.

Measuring and ironing the leg hem.

The pattern has a draw string around the middle. I cut one out of the excess fabric, sewed it together, then top stitched it for a more finished look. The draw string goes in a casing that you create by sewing the outside and liner together. I was nervous and concentrating on getting it right, so I didn’t take pictures!

The bathing suit was finished! Mia took it home and tried it on. You can kind of see the bloomers making the legs full, but better to have full legs than reveal everything at the beach! HA!

For it’s first wear, Mia decided to wear it as a romper, paired with a sweater. Super cute!

She was then going to go to the beach to take pictures, but had a change of plans. She instead brought it when she came home for a quick, front yard photo shoot. Getting custom vintage clothes is amazing, taking the pictures sometimes gets hard. No one understands more than me. I’m the worst, and most fussy when it comes to taking pictures of myself!

I think these turned out great and show how cute this bathing suit turned out!

I can’t wait to see how the bathing suit holds up at the beach. I’m not sure if it’s practical, but when I find out, I will report back! I love that Mia had the vision to see it as not just a bathing suit, as the pattern intended, but also as a romper!

Why could both beach and blog pictures wait? Mia had a more important place to go in her bathing suit/romper. Off to meet her new cousin Emerson!

This sew is an important reminder to be flexible, maybe you were going to take beach pictures but front yard is fine. Think outside the box, maybe it is a bathing suit but it does work as a romper too. But the most important reminder is to make time for those who you love!

As for me, onto the next!